I believe the profession of Vakalat is a species of the traditional Guru-Shishya Parampara with a little moderation. As a corollary, the courts are equivalent to Gurukul and the Seniors are Gurus. The juniors have the opportunity to learn the practice and procedure not only from their immediate seniors but also from other Seniors who regularly appear before the Hon’ble Courts on a daily basis.
Furthermore, since the Seniors have come a long way in the profession, they can serve as a guiding light in learning some of the important lessons that can enhance the quality of one’s professional life. The few yet valuable lessons I have learned thus far, which I have discussed in the present blog, have inspired me to believe that it is not only sufficient to be a good Vakeel but I must be a good Senior to my juniors, and a good human being as well. I have often heard my elders say that our success is not always measured as to how much money we have, but by the reputation as well that we earn and bear in the mind of right thinking people around us.
So, once I was attending a summer vacation bench and was sitting inside Court No. 2 of the Apex Court. What I witnessed was a treat to my eyes and made me realise that “once a junior is always a junior, once a senior is always a senior”. I was shocked when I saw the Ld. Senior Counsel Mr. B who acted like a junior when he was called upon by another Ld. Senior Counsel Mr. A to have a small discussion. As per my knowledge, the Ld. Senior Counsel Mr. B was junior to Mr. A when he had started his career. It is difficult to explain exactly the body language of Mr. B but certainly when Mr. A called his name his junior mode got switched on. Mr. B’s body was stiff and overly attentive as he sat beside Mr. A to talk. After some time the Ld. Senior Counsel Mr. A left the courtroom but Mr. B kept waiting for him and tried not to leave the chair until it was confirmed that Mr. A would not come back to his place. Meanwhile, I observed that Mr. B was visibly uncomfortable because of the cold air coming out of the air conditioner but he did not dare to get up and continued waiting for Mr. A. Finally, after 8-10 minutes he returned to his place and then felt relaxed. This whole incident taught me that it is immaterial of how successful you might become, the quality of paying respect to Seniors should never fade away. It is important to always remember that even a Senior by designation will, still, always be a junior to someone. I already look up to Ld. Senior Counsel Mr. B for numerous other reasons and this was an addition to the long list.
The next two incidents taught me that at times random acts of kindness and humility towards juniors can actually boost a junior’s morale and may create a strong bonding which may lead to lifelong friendship in a few lucky cases. This incident happened around April 2022. A conference was scheduled with the Ld. Senior Counsel Mr. P and my Senior had already left for home. She decided to attend the conference virtually and instructed me to go to Ld. Senior Counsel’s office so that at least one person from our office was physically present. This was the first physical conference I had attended without Ma’am. Moreover, this was my first time assisting Ma’am in a case in which Mr. P was engaged as the Senior Counsel, so I was completely unaware of his modus operandi. Of course, I knew who he was and had seen him arguing in the Court. I also had the general information about him being very calm and humble, so I gathered my courage and confidence to attend the physical conference all alone (anyways I had no option). After waiting for some time, our turn came, and the moment I entered the Ld. Senior Counsel’s chamber, to my utter surprise, he said, “I keep seeing you in Court. Please make yourself comfortable…” Trust me dear readers, it took me two minutes to process the above lines and to come back to the conference so that I could be attentive. It may seem a minor detail, but few of my Ld. Colleagues reading this would definitely agree with me on the point that firstly, any Ld. Senior Counsel is greeted by nearly 15-20 unknown/new juniors on a daily basis because of their position as a Senior Counsel, and it is impossible for them to remember each one. Secondly, if a Ld. Senior Counsel acknowledges your presence in Court when you are not even an independent counsel or have not briefed her/him earlier then it really means a lot. That is all there is to it. Furthermore, I had even never greeted Sir before meeting him for the conference that is why I was amazed as to how down to earth the Ld. Senior Counsel is. When the conference ended and I came back home I must have mentally replayed the whole incident nearly ten times and that’s when I realised that, at times, acknowledging juniors does not make the seniors a less senior even if there has never been any communication with them.
Similar to the above, the other incident happened when the Courts resumed physically after the COVID period. Now the background is that I have a habit of bowing down a little while greeting the Seniors (both designated and non-designated) for the simple reason that they deserve it. In case of Seniors by designation, I particularly deem it proper to do so because they have given twenty and above years of their lives to this profession and have worked hard to be able to wear the Senior Gown. So I was standing outside Court No. 11 or 12 waiting for the matter. I generally greeted the Ld. Senior Counsel, but he unexpectedly came to me and very gently asked me not to bow down rather to greet him by simply waving my hand and saying hello to him. It was a very modest and kind gesture. That day, I learnt that there is no harm in giving comfort to juniors, again, even if there has never been any communication with them.
The next in line taught me that forgiveness is the biggest virtue even when there is no scope for it. I would like to emphasise that it takes loads of patience, maturity, and self-control to forgive a junior for their mistake especially when there is a shortage of time and the stakes are high. Through this incident I learnt (although I doubt that I will ever be able to have so much patience) that one should remain as calm and composed as possible immaterial of the pressure and stress. It was only two months (in 2020) of joining my senior’s office that my senior told me to brief a Ld. Senior Counsel as she got held up in another conference which took more time than expected. The peculiar thing was that I was informed just an hour before and the file was running into some 300 pages. Due to the inexperience of briefing even a single senior I got scared and there was a complete blackout. I was shaking from head to toe, let alone gathering the courage to download the file, read it, understand the case, formulate the flow of the briefing etc. It took me twenty minutes to accept the situation and start reading the file as time was running out. Before I could do the needful there were only fifteen minutes left and I had just read 10 pages of the impugned judgment, and even those fifteen minutes passed in thinking that, “Today, I am gone…” The conference started and I briefed her on only ten pages. The Ld. Senior Counsel was quick enough (the experience of course) to realise about my condition and asked me if I had briefed her previously. My answer was, of course, no. I was just waiting for her to burst out with anger but to my surprise and amazement, she said nothing. I went blank again because I thought as to why she is not scolding me for being not prepared. I was literally waiting for her to start saying things because I had wasted her fifteen precious minutes as other conferences were also lined up and this matter was listed the next day. Before I could come to my senses after witnessing the above miracle as well as the embarrassment caused before four-five other Counsels who were witnessing the whole episode, she asked me about my years of standing and out of nervousness/shame/guilt I gave her the wrong answer. I secretly wished I had the power to erase everyone’s memory of this conference. But thankfully I did not correct myself at that moment otherwise this would have added more to the agony and frustration which I was somehow hiding behind my straight face. I thought, “jo boldiya so boldiya. Bus ab chup raho. Bahut damage ho chuka hai. Bus aur nahi…” Thereafter, someone else took over and briefed her. Finally, the conference ended and my feelings for the next two hours were just to die in “chullu bhar ke paani mein”. The next day I did not come in front of her because I did not have the courage to look into her eyes.
But I am still short of words for the Ld. Senior Counsel’s patience and self-control that she had exercised that day. I do not want to even imagine how annoying it would have been for her to put up with my nonsense. To this day, I am truly grateful to her and I still get jitters thinking about the above conference. I still feel embarrassed but at the same time imagine myself learning to practise forgiveness and patience just like she did that day with me.
To be continued…
* The author's views are personal.
